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    PREVIEW: COACH DAWSON CONFIDENT PERERA WILL COME GOOD

    17 July 2017

    Gloucestershire head coach Richard Dawson believes Sunday's T20 match with Sussex will have been beneficial for all rounder Thisara Perera.

    Gloucestershire head to Canterbury on Tuesday to play Kent (7.00) after the Sri Lankan made his debut in the abandoned affair against Sussex on the final day of the Cheltenham Festival, taking 1-18 in 2.1 overs before rain prevented any further play after the Sussex innings was complete.

    Click here to view Gloucestershire's home NatWest T20 Blast fixtures and book tickets

    "He wants to do well and anyone would have been nervous" Dawson said. "He only arrived late on Friday, settled into his flat and then he was straight into training on Saturday and playing on Sunday. I'm sure he'll relax now and get into his work. There's not much time for sitting around, which is probably a good thing for him."

    Gloucestershire have again named a squad of 13 for the match at Canterbury, with Gareth Roderick and Kieran Noema-Barnett travelling along with the 11 who played against Sussex.

    Squad :

    Klinger (c), Mustard, Cockbain, Hankins, Roderick, Howell, J. Taylor, Perera, Noema-Barnett, Smith, Payne, M.Taylor, Liddle.

    Kent responded to their defeat at Cheltenham with a fine win over Surrey at The Oval on Friday, with opening batsman Joe Denly making a century. He had also looked in good touch at the College Ground, and Dawson knows detail in preparation is important in T20 cricket.

    "I saw some of the highlights and Denly and Daniel Bell-Drummond put together a very good run chase" he added. "In the field you have to work with and adapt to the conditions but also we have very specific plans for some batsmen. You want your best fielders where they score heavily, those who throw right or left handed in certain positions, and so on. Those little things can save important runs, as can bowlers taking pace off the ball and bowling good yorkers."

    Gloucestershire's last two away fixtures against Kent in the T20 have been at Beckenham. Both have resulted in Gloucestershire wins and Dawson would love to make it three in a row at the St Lawrence Ground.

    "I've not been to Canterbury for a long time for a T20 fixture" he continued. "We did have a Royal London One-Day Cup game there last year and there is a slope so they tend to play the limited overs matches on one side of the square. We'll have a look at the wicket when we get there but I'd certainly like us to be a bit tidier with our fielding than we were against Sussex. We had been very good in the previous two games and for some reason we weren't as clinical."

    Coverage :

    You can follow the match via the live scorecard available on the website, or via Twitter @GlosCricket

     

     

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